1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosures herein relate generally to processes for ensuring an importer's compliance with domestic customs requirements. More specifically, the present disclosures relate to systems and methods for correcting erroneous information reported to customs agents, as well as the effects of such erroneous reports, after the imported goods to which the reported information refer are received by the importer.
2. Description of Related Art
When a U.S. company imports goods from foreign sources, it may be subject to numerous U.S. Customs regulations. One such set of requirements is based upon a complex classification system promulgated by U.S. Customs, known as the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (“HTS”) code. Within this system, U.S. Customs classifies types of products using 10-digit HTS codes. These codes may be used, for example, to determine the applicable tariff rates on different types of products imported into the U.S. Importers must therefore correctly classify each imported product under the appropriate HTS code, so that the proper duty amounts may be calculated.
A customs broker is an intermediary between an importer and U.S. Customs. The broker determines the amount of duty owed on imported goods and prepares and submits paperwork and duty payment to U.S. Customs on behalf of the importer. Foreign suppliers send invoices and shipping documents with their shipment of imported goods, and these documents are generally required by customs brokers for the purpose of calculating the duty and preparing the Customs paperwork submissions. The broker then submits a report to the importer, which includes information about the Customs filings and the amount of duty paid.
Sometimes, a customs broker will make mistakes when estimating the amount of duty owed on the goods in a shipment. Sometimes, a duty may be miscalculated because of mistakes in the invoices and shipping documents. When such mistakes are of great enough magnitude to warrant concern, the mistakes may be corrected, and an official amendment may then be generated and filed with U.S. Customs. Detecting such mistakes can be a cumbersome process, and keeping track of standards for detecting when mistakes are of great enough magnitude to warrant corrections and amendments, whether such standards are initiated by U.S. Customs or by the importer, can be particularly difficult.
In addition to customs broker reports, for each shipment of imported goods an importer also receives information directly from the foreign suppliers. Information from the suppliers may include billing invoices, and are typically the same as the shipping invoices. However, sometimes billing invoices are prepared by the suppliers at a different time or in a different location than the shipping invoices were prepared, which can result in discrepancies between the two types of invoices. Examples of common discrepancies are inconsistent dates, unit numbers, and dollar amounts. Such inconsistencies make it difficult for an importer to balance its billing invoices against the shipping invoices and documents used by the customs broker, because it is difficult to match documents relating to a single shipment when they are inconsistently labeled.
Because of the difficulties described above, and other complexities involved in the importation, classification and trade compliance process, there is not currently a thorough, convenient or efficient way to manage the various types of import-related data such that they can be centrally accessed for trade compliance processing. Rather, each type of data is typically handled by a different person or within a different section of a large multi-division importer. This causes trade compliance processing within a multi-division importing company to be a disjointed and time-consuming procedure.